Wherever the Road Leads: National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum

Not sure what we were thinking, but we thought somehow that we could go check out this museum for a few hours and still make it back home in time to take showers at the RV park office before it closed at 5:30. Hmmm...that leads me to mention that our abode for our four nights in OKC is well....not a place that you come to for beautiful, quiet surroundings and for clean showers that are available whenever showering might be convenient for you . You come to Abe's RV Park because it's so stinkin' close to the Science Museum and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum & not much further to downtown and the OKC Bombing Memorial...and because they don't charge extra for kids...that's why you stay here! Yep, the 10 to 5:30 hours on the one dirty shower for the campground seemed a bit restrictive...and the noise from the traffic on the interstate was not so fabulous either, but at least the sites weren't so tight. There was even grass, and the kids actually had room to get out & jump rope & pick flowers/weeds & such. And, the wifi was great, as well.

This painting is the museum highlight. It is "Emigrants crossing the plains" by Albert Bierstadt

But, I digress. We decided to visit the Cowboy Museum after some indecision as to whether this would be a good fit for our family. Turns out this is a fabulous museum --- sooo much to see! We arrived about 10:30 & stayed till close at 5:00. The artwork was phenomenal, but there was much more than just amazing paintings here. There were displays of pueblo pottery, Native American dress and artifacts, a gallery on rodeos including information and video clips of various events, a gallery of guns, cowboy dress, cowboys on tv and in the movies, and even a section on various types of barbed wire...who knew there were so many?? (Pretty sure this museum would be absolutely riveting to my brother, Glen.) There was a little frontier town and a children's play area that Genna couldn't get enough of.

Nearly all the docents were super nice & friendly, despite the fact that our littles weren't super cooperative about the whole staying quiet & not being rambunctious thing...then again, we did spend the entire day here, so who could blame them! Jake was busy engaging anyone and everyone he could---walking up behind strangers and laughing until they turned around & smiled at him, or playing peekaboo with strangers around display cases. Funny boy! All that to say, we definitely enjoyed our time here. They had a beautiful garden area outside, but they were strict about no food or drink, even outside, so our picnic lunch was eaten out in the parking lot under a bradford pear tree that kept dropping blossoms in our food!